Public to have their say on future of Heanor Health Services

A 90 day public consultation where people can have their say on the future of health services in Heanor has been launched today (11 July) by NHS Southern Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

People can have their say online, by email, post, or by attending one of the four consultation meetings. To ensure that everyone has an opportunity to have their say, the consultation meetings will be held in smaller venues as follows:

The CCG will also be attending the Heanor Community Fair in August and September. The Community Fair is held on the 1st Saturday of every month, from 9am through to 1pm in St Lawrence Church. Copies of the consultation document will also be made available in local GP Practices, clinics and other public places for people without access to the internet. A final decision on how health services will be developed in Heanor will be made in November 2014.

The consultation follows the public meeting, held on 29 May, where the CCG proposed that the existing memorial hospital and health centre should be replaced with a brand new NHS centre on the current hospital site. The new building would reflect the history of the site and the CCG would attempt to include all of the memorial plaques, trees, benches and photographs in the designs.

The CCG has met with a number of local people in many different settings – at the Heanor 50+ Forum, the GP practices in the town and at the outpatient clinics which have moved to Ilkeston, among many others. Some themes had emerged from the discussions. People recognised that there were problems with the current building and that it needed to be demolished, as long as something new was built in its place; that services needed to be provided in Heanor; and that the memorial status of the current hospital needed to remain.

The CCG has also been looking at a vast amount of health service data, supporting information and clinical evidence to determine what the ‘health need’ is in the area and how that need might then be best catered for by local health services. Detailed talks have taken place with local GPs, the County Council and all main providers of health services in the area.

Andy Layzell, Chief Officer of NHS Southern Derbyshire CCG, said:

“As a patient focused organisation, we want to ensure that everyone in Derbyshire has the opportunity to let us know their views over this 90 day period. We have been clear in saying what our preferred option is but this does not mean that a decision has been made.

“At the public meeting we confirmed that do have the NHS funding in place to build a new £2.5m health building which will provide services that meet the health requirements of the population. In the current economic climate this is a significant investment and demonstrates our strong commitment to the people of Heanor. We would expect it to take around two years for a new building to be ready following approval.

“The purpose of this consultation is to check whether people agree with us and if they do not agree, why not and how might we be able to address their concerns. We will continue to listen to local people before we ask our Governing Body to make a decision.”

The consultation document is available online in our Heanor health services consultation section, or on request by calling 01332 868 677. A podcast version of the consultation document is also being produced which will be available for people to download.

The consultation period runs from Friday 11 July to Friday 8 October 2014. A final decision will be made by the NHS Southern Derbyshire CCG Governing Body in November 2014.